“Top” Ten Music Aviation Tragedies: Jim Croce (#5)

Tweet

Talk about a tragedy! Today’s look back at one of the plane crashes that took the life of a musician highlights a number of recurring themes in this countdown…including “the height of their career,” bad weather, and pilot error. One of the greats that we sadly lost too early. #5: Jim Croce and Maury Muehleisen And another case of “what if” as well. Jim Croce was just getting to the “superstar” point of his career, after hits like “You Don’t Mess Around with Jim” and “Bad, Bad Leroy Brown,” as well as poignant ballads like “Operator (That’s Not the Way It Feels).” As Croce’s popularity soared, so did the demand for concerts. In September 1973 he found a busy schedule, but with a day off — September 19 — to reschedule a show at Northern Louisiana University that he’d had to cancel earlier in the year because of sickness. Traveling with him was his “one man band,” guitarist and harmony singer Maury Muehleisen; opening act, comedian George Stevens; Croce’s manager; and a talent manager for a venue in Chicago. After the performance they boarded a plane to take them to their next gig in Sherman, Texas. And guess what… Now, an interesting twist to this one is the pilot was supposedly suffering from coronary artery disease, yet he ran three miles to the airport to pilot the plane. Then he jumped into the plane and taxied down a foggy runway with little lighting and went into what the NTSB called a “visual black hole.” Not able to orient himself to the horizon because of the fog (and maybe he was having an asthma attack as well after the run), he crashed the plane into trees. Everyone on board was killed instantly. Croce’s son, A.J., continues the family name in music. But for Jim, as one of his most popular songs (“Time in a Bottle”) said, “there never seemed to be enough time to do the things you want to do once you find them.” Jim Croce Born James Joseph Croce January 10, 1943 - September 20, 1973 (age 30) Maury Muehleisen Born Maurice T. Muehleisen January 14, 1949 - September 20, 1973 (age 24) Place of crash: Natchitoches Municipal Airport, Natchitoches, Louisiana Here’s Jim and his “one man band” Maury doing “Working At the Carwash Blues” (love his introduction to this):